Raymond Cole liked to “go big” at the holidays, but he had never attempted anything quite like The Living Manger. As the Saks Fifth Avenue window designer in New York City, he always got attention for his work, but this year was the biggest celebration yet. Instead of using mannequins and props, he hired real people and animals to pose for him. Of course, this didn’t come without its hiccups every now and then.
“The Little Drummer Boy is missing!” Raymond said during a last-minute rehearsal on Christmas Eve. He stormed through the display and looked for the child. “Did he break a drumstick?”
Waiting for the Living Manger window display to go live on this Christmas Eve afternoon, shoppers on the street stopped to watch the window. Raymond hated when the shoppers came early to his window premieres. The display was about to launch at any moment, but all Raymond felt was complete chaos.
“Draw the curtain until I’m ready!” Raymond yelled. Since his assistant Athena had her hands full snapping photos for behind-the-scenes memorabilia, Raymond ran to the window. “I’ll have to do it myself.” He covered with window with relief.
Every holiday season, the New Yorkers gathered outside the Saks windows on Fifth Avenue to celebrate the season. During the weeks ahead of the premiere, Raymond advertised in all the major city publications. He set up exterior speakers to play holiday music and lights to flash. This year, he even had fireworks on the schedule.
“Where is the drummer’s mother?” Raymond called. He grabbed his camera and took a few behind-the-scenes photos of his own. “We’re paying that boy by the hour to play the drums!”
Not only was Raymond well-known for his window displays, but also his portrait photography. Most of all, he loved to take photos of his wife, Ramona. He missed her when he had to work, but especially during holidays like this Christmas Eve. She was always so supportive of him.
“I haven’t seen the Drummer Boy,” Athena, his assistant, informed him, as she organized the cameras and lights. “Maybe he ran inside Saks?”
“I will find him!” Raymond said. “The only thing worse than this craziness is when I took portraits of kids sitting on Santa’s knee, and they would cry and pick their noses.”
Athena rolled her eyes at Raymond and smiled.
“Otherwise, please make sure to take photos of all the characters in the displays for housekeeping purposes,” Raymond told Athena. “I have too many other things to do.”
“I’ll do my best in between everything else that I’m already doing!” she replied.
Despite his love for portraits, the holidays were Raymond’s busiest season with Christmas and Hanukkah themes in his window designs. This year, Raymond created a magical manger, complete with Mary, Joseph, a real baby Jesus, live animals, Three Wise Men, Shepherds, Angels, and an actual child drummer. Mannequins were usually used in Christmas displays, so nothing like this had ever been done before at Saks—with real people and animals.
At any moment, the animals were being delivered by the local zoo: an ox, a donkey, a camel, sheep, horses, pigs, and a dove. He made sure to keep several pooper scoopers on hand for droppings from the zoo animals.
“I found this boy running through the jewelry department, banging his drum!” the Saks Fifth Avenue manager called to Raymond from down the hall. He walked the Little Drummer Boy to the window display. “Don’t let him out of your sight!”
The little boy looked up at Raymond and smiled. Raymond did the best he could to control his temper. He couldn’t let his emotions run away from him.
“Stand right there and keep drumming!” Raymond explained to the child. “Have fun! Everyone is going to be watching. People will love you!”
“Raymond, can I talk to you a minute?” Athena whispered. “Stay calm, but the baby Jesus has gone missing, too!”
“What do you mean that the baby Jesus has gone missing, too?” Raymond repeated in a slow voice. “We just tracked down the Little Drummer Boy! All Jesus has to do is nap!”
“We might have a case of kidnapping!” Athena insisted. “I called the police to make a report.”
“Kidnapped! What is the world coming to?” Raymond said. “If this kid was kidnapped, we are in so much trouble!”
“I think the mother is at L’Avenue at Saks for lunch!” Athena said. “The police might think we stole the baby. He has got to be around here somewhere.”
“If we could at least find him by the time the curtain rises,” Raymond said. “Maybe a shopper took him!”
Meanwhile, Raymond peered through the curtain to see the shoppers gathered on the street who waited to see the unveiling of the completed display. As New York City Police Department Officers arrived with guns and badges, Raymond grew frantic that the crowd would leave. Somehow, Raymond had to bring order to the chaos that ensued.
“We are going to search the entire department store,” the police officer announced as he walked into the set of the window display with several other personnel. “The department is on it!”
“I found this plastic baby in the toy section,” Athena sighed. She unwrapped a possible stand-in baby Jesus from its cardboard box.
“No! This is the Living Manger. We can’t use a plastic baby doll. We have to find the missing baby,” Raymond said. He peered through the curtain again. “Oh, look at the people on the street! They came for holiday cheer! We need to give it to them. If they only knew what was going on behind the curtain!”
Until the Living Manger went live, Raymond was relieved that the shoppers could see his other windows that had already opened. Saks Fifth Avenue featured his Silver Hanukkah Star and Golden Dreidel Windows. He also had a Snow Castle Window, a Santa Workshop Window, and New Year’s Eve Gala Window. Just when Raymond was about to have a breakdown, the mother of the missing baby walked into the window with a shawl over her shoulder.
“The police officer told me that you were looking for my son!” Mary Louis said. “He was hungry. I was just breastfeeding him in the restaurant. I couldn’t feed him in the window. He’s asleep now.” She lifted up the shawl from her shoulder.
“Everyone is expecting for a baby to be in the straw,” Raymond said. “Next time, maybe bring a bottle to feed him? We almost called the FBI!”
The mother of the fictional baby Jesus, named George, pulled a bottle of prepared milk from her bag. Raymond tried hard not to glare at her and smiled instead.
“I will try not to make any more disruptions,” Mary promised. She peered through the curtain. “The crowd looks ready to see the manger!”
“I’m glad we have all this straightened out now!” the police officer cheered. “This will be the best Christmas ever!”
“Places, please!” Raymond called through his bullhorn. “We are about to go live in minutes!”
While snapping photos, Athena ushered the actors into their places in the window, including the baby Jesus in his cradle, along with Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men, Shepherds, Angels, and the Little Drummer Boy. Then, the animals from the zoo strutted into the window. Raymond positioned each of them in their own space. They left their own unique footprints on the floor.
“Don’t anyone touch the baby Jesus!” Athena said. “Hands off! He’s not a prop.”
Raymond sat in his director’s chair ready to go. He had waited long enough. The window was as good as it would ever get.
“At the count of five, we are going live!” Raymond said. “One! Two! Three! Four! Five! We are live!”
With that, Raymond raised the curtain. Then, he pushed a button on the wall, which started the outside music that included “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Joy to the World.” Red, green, and white fireworks went off with a bang, and strobe lights flashed inside and outside the window. The window was officially up and running.
“Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!” Raymond said on a microphone from inside the window. He watched the animals closely and hoped they wouldn’t spook at the noise from the opening announcements. He hoped everyone enjoyed his neutral color palette with metallic accents.
“We did it!” Athena said to Raymond. She admired the baby Jesus fast asleep in his cradle. He nestled in the straw in peace, almost like a real baby Jesus.
“Now, we just have to keep this scene going every day until the holidays are over!” Raymond said. “I know we can do it!”
Then, Raymond’s phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID with excitement.
“It’s Ramona!” he noticed. “She probably wonders why it took so long for the Living Manger to go live!”
As he looked out the window, he saw her on the street in the crowd of shoppers. She held her cell phone to her ear.
“Raymond, the Living Manger window looks marvelous!” she gushed. “How on earth did you do all of this! You make it look effortless!”
“Oh, honey, we hardly lifted a finger!” he fibbed. Among other things, he thought she didn’t need to know about the missing baby or the zoo smell. “It came together all at once. Merry Christmas! I love you.”
With that, the baby Jesus started to cry as a dove landed on its cradle. The pig nipped at the Little Drummer Boy’s arm, and the donkey dropped poop on the floor. A shepherd dozed off while standing, and his sheep ran away down the hall. The halo on the lead angel bent in half, and a camel chewed one of the wise men’s robes. The Bethlehem Star looked like it could fall from place at any second. The horse was the calmest animal of the bunch, but it kept smacking Mary and Joseph with its tail. The young ox was hornless but still looked like he had the potential to be mean.
Raymond thought that the drama at the manger on Fifth Avenue never ended! But what would Christmas be without a little chaos?
As he looked out the window, he saw an animal rights protest group appear with signs. Then, he watched as Ramona shuffled them down the street in Raymond’s defense.
“Christmas is the happiest time of the year!” Raymond said, as he sat down in his director’s chair. He watched while snow started to fall from the sky. “The best is yet to be!”
Copyright 2021, 2025 Jennifer Waters
